


my lips could tell the lie (but my heart would know)

by amosanguis



Series: soul-bond/soulmates AUs [6]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canonical Character Death, Gen, M/M, Magical Realism, POV Alternating, Soulmates, SuperBat, short scenes, title from a country song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6381943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tragedy and loss have slowed Bruce’s heart rhythm to the point he’s not sure he still has one; Clark’s heart rhythm will never match a human’s.  Maybe they can meet somewhere in the middle.</p><p> </p><p>AU where soulmates have matching heartbeats.</p>
            </blockquote>





	my lips could tell the lie (but my heart would know)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from “My Heart Would Know” by Hank Williams ft. the Drifting Cowboys

-z-

 

Bruce puts a hand over his heart, feels the quick beat occasionally accentuated with a rapid one-two thump – his heart rhythm unique to himself and his soulmate.

“Do you think I’ll find them?” Bruce asks his mother, watching as she picks up a long string of pearls.

“One day,” she says, smiling at him in the mirror.  “Your father and I found each other – we were in love long before we even knew we were soulmates.”

“Tell me the story again?” Bruce asks, stepping closer and leaning against the vanity.

Martha Wayne chuckles indulgently as she begins.  “Well, I was taking my sister into the hospital…”

 

-

 

“Martha,” his father chokes.

Bruce screams again and his heartbeat stutters.

 

-

 

Bruce’s heart rhythm slows when he buries his parents.

It slows even further as he trains.

And further still once he dons the cowl, retreating into himself and into the darkness of Gotham’s forgotten alleys.

 

-x-

 

Clark closes his eyes and puts his head to his mama’s chest, listens to the way her heart dances, light and quick.  If he focuses, he can find his dad’s heartbeat and listen to the way their heart rhythms beat in perfect tandem.

He knows he’ll never have this for himself, a soulmate whose heart rhythm matched his – he wasn’t human and his rhythm was too irregular.

(“Never say never,” mama says, grinning to Clark before she looks over, smiles at her husband.)

 

-

 

The day of the tornado, Martha Kent’s heart stops and the silence for Clark is overwhelming, it throws him off kilter even more than the loss of his father has.

It takes a week for her heart to start up again, but the beats are empty, heavy, and Clark has to force himself to block the sound out entirely.

 

-

 

While sitting at his desk at the Daily Planet, Clark likes to listen – he matches heart rhythms to faces, likes to hear whose heart matches with whom.

He might not have a match himself, but he finds he’s not as bothered by it as he used to be when he was a child.

 

-x-

 

Even if he hadn’t become Batman, Bruce wasn’t sure if he’d care about finding his soulmate.  So instead of taking Selina up on seeing if their heart rhythms matched, he focuses on raising Dick and then Jason.

 

-

 

“I’m sorry, sir,” Alfred says.

“I am, too,” Bruce says, his eyes not leaving the casket being lowered into the ground.  He feels his heart slowing again and he’s not sure how many more funerals he can attend before his heart finally gives way.

 

-

 

“ _Jack!_ ” Bruce shouts, the city around him crumbling – succumbing to a battle between gods.

 

-

 

As he pulls the little girl to his chest, Bruce’s heart stops but for the random one-two thump.

 

-x-

 

There’s a strange silence when Clark meets Bruce Wayne – it was unnerving.

“It must be the Gotham City in me,” Bruce says.  “We have a bad history with freaks dressed like clowns.” 

And just as he’s walking away, Clark hears a _thump-thump_ – loud and strong – before there’s silence again and Bruce is gone and it feels like a punch to Clark – hearing his heartbeat echoed back to him. 

It wasn’t a perfect echo – Bruce’s heart rhythm was incomplete, muted in the way that only those who have known substantial loss can have.  But it was _there_.  And Clark is still reeling when his eyes catch a television set.

 

-

 

Clark pulls the doors off the Batmobile – watching as Batman slowly stands, not flinching away, not showing any sign of fear, his heart not—

Clark’s eyebrows furrow as he listens harder.

 _Silence_.

He looks down at Batman’s chest.

 _Silence_.

He shakes himself, brushing it off as he looks up at Batman again, says, “Next time—”

 _Thump-thump_.

Clark’s eyes jerk down to Batman’s chest again ( _silence_ ) before coming back up to Batman’s eyes – then he remembers where he’s heard that rhythm before.  “ _Bruce Wayne?_ ”

Batman’s eyes widen underneath the cowl, echoed by another _thump-thump_ , as he asks, “How did you—?”

“ _You’re_ Batman?  _You’re_ my soulmate?” Clark asks, his voice rising as he feels himself beginning to hover.

“We can’t be soulmates,” Batman snarls, his computerized voice grating.  “You’re not human.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that your heartbeat echoes mine,” Superman snaps back, forcing himself back down to the ground and to take a few steps backwards.  “Your heart rhythm is mostly silence, but _that_ —”

“This doesn’t change anything,” Batman interrupts.

Superman feels his chest tighten – there was loathing in Batman’s eyes, a burning hatred – so Clark swallows down his next words.  Instead he nods once, his jaw clenching as he launches himself into the air.

 

-x-

 

“This changes everything,” Alfred says, quiet and calm.

Bruce puts his head in his hands and pointedly ignores the pain in his chest.

 

-z-

 

End.


End file.
